Barkald: 2015 ship number one

The first ship to enter port in 2015 is Barkald, although it did not arrive at the pilot station until 1500hrs. Its destination is the National Gypsum pier in Bedford Basin, and it will arrive there just after 1700hrs, the end of the New Year's Day holiday.

Barkald has just rounded George's Island and catches the last blasts of sun at 1609 hrs. Two cm of fresh snow blankets Halifax - the first snow of this winter.

The ship has shown up on this blog many times, and is always a remarkable sight with its complex, above deck self-unloading system, consisting of cranes, clamshell grabs, hoppers, conveyor belts and a slewing boom. The ship's holds are thus kept completely clear and take full advantage of the available volume of the hull. Self-contained self-unloaders have Vee shaped holds, and conveyor tunnels which reduce available space for cargo, and thus payload.They make up for this loss by unloading speed. Barkald has the best of both worlds: relatively rapid unloading times and full cargo volume.

The 28924 grt, 49,463 dwt ship was built at Oshima, Japan in 2002 and is owned by the Torvald Klaveness Group of Oslo. Working under the Marshall Islands flag, it operates in the CSL International pool with ships of CSL Americas, Oldendorff Carriers, Marbulk Shipping Inc and Algoma Shipping Inc.

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